graphic design student

logo

I’ve now finished first year at Falmouth which is exciting and I’ve had a really good time. I’m looking forward to getting back in September.

This was a project that I did at the end of semester 2. The brief was titled Playing With Food and was to “engage children in a creative exploration of food [which, in turn, encourages a positive attitude towards eating a balanced diet]”. I did lots of initial research but eventually decided to take forward the idea of designing the brand identity for a national campaign for schools to get children interested in food.

My final outcome was a week long, rainbow themed celebration of food encouraging schools to take part and put on workshops, games, competitions and cookery classes. Hopefully children would become more confident and enthusiastic about food and eat a healthier, more balanced diet. Continue reading →

This project was part two of the ‘A word in your eye’ project and continued on from the the type project that we completed before Christmas. We had to design a drink based on one of the words that we had used in the previous project. Mine was erudite (having or showing great knowledge or learning.)

I researched different drinks that I thought had connotations of science or learning. Of course, I had a pinterest board to collate my research and pull together some visual language. I looked into brain food and juice diets that claim to boost brain power.

I decided to focus my research on cold pressed juices because they are supposedly the most nutritious way to drink juice Continue reading →

I’ve made some progress! I have now put together the brand identity guide which I’m using to inform the rest of the the designs.

I am really glad that I’ve got this done because it means I can finally put together all the other elements (menu, t-shirt, poster, cups, signage, business cards). In the end I went with the font Iron and Brine for the primary logo because it seemed to have more substance to it than the other design and I decided that it looked better on all scales. Since making the decision I have been pleased with it because I have started designing the business cards and menu and I think that the logo is working well with the look i’m going for. I also added some variations of the logo that can be used in different colour ways or just to mix up the designs so that they don’t all look identical. I also selected the font Quicksand to be used in the body text on the menu and other places where clarity is important. I drew the illustrations of the bananas on Illustrator and I am satisfied with them. I did initially try scanning in a drawing I had done by hand and image tracing it but it looked very messy (see below). To solve this I drew directly in Illustrator using the brush tool. Because it was only a simple illustration it worked quite well but it wouldn’t have if the image was any more complicated.

^ Final banana illustration – I have ordered a custom rubber stamp with this on it, hopefully to be used on the business cards.

I have been considering the colour palette for the brand identity and after testing out a few variations I have decided to go with yellow, light green, dark green, pink and black. I used paint samples from Homebase to test out the options and I think this worked well and I was able to easily see which combinations worked and which ones didn’t. For example, I like palette 3 below because it includes both a light and bright banana yellow, but it lacks a colour that gives the impression of organic, natural food.

^ Some colour palette tests^ Final colour palette

I have been developing the logo for my brand identity and I have done lots of sketches to try to come up with a final design. I have taken some of the initial designs and tested out different variations:

I think I prefer the way that the logo looks when the words banana and bread are placed on top of each other- I also think that this would look better on a round sticker. I also tried out the design and the colour scheme on the elephant poo paper and I think it works well. I think that at this point I need to take part in a group critique or group tutorial to get some feedback about the designs and check that i’m on track.

Over the last few days I have been sketching in my sketchbook and I have started to come up with some ideas for the logo. I used the book ‘1000 Restaurant, Bar and Cafe Graphics’ by Luke Herriott as inspiration and I photocopied some of the designs that I liked/thought were interesting and I stuck them into my sketchbook as part of my research.

Here are some photos of the early stages of logo designing in my sketchbook:

I like the idea of having a purely textual logo because I think that would be simpler and easier to print – especially if I want to get a stamp made. I do think however that it would be good to have a small illustration or selection of illustrations to make the branding more interesting. I tested out using the motif of a banana in the logo. I like the designs and think that some of them would be really lovely screen printed with the banana in block colour. I also like the idea of having yellow being a main colour- the link to bananas would be strong and it is a good balance between a natural colour and a bright one (which is what I would like to achieve).

I think what might be best is to have a textual logo and a small illustration or set of illustrations separately and then I can choose on which applications to combine them.

I am still in the really early stages of the design process but I am pleased with the way my ideas are developing. Here are the two designs that I like the most so far:

I will continue developing these logos and refining them. I will also begin considering the other colours that I will use in the colour scheme. I will go to Homebase and get some paint chips to test out different palettes. I think at the moment I would like to try out yellows and possibly pinks and greens.

I will continue to look out for Cafe and Bakery branding when I am out and about but for the moment, these give me a range of different existing brand identities that I can use as a starting point. I think that it is interesting to see that lots of the cafes have gone for a handmade looking style- perhaps this makes them more approachable because they look less corporate and commercial. I would like to take some elements of this, perhaps by having a stamped effect etc., however I would also like to make sure that my designs are bold, professional looking and eye-catching. My primary research for this project will definitely continue throughout the next few weeks.

R

Hello

^ My name is Rosanna and I'm a 20 year old Graphic Design student, studying in Falmouth. I use this site as a project journal, portfolio and a place to write about design/student life.